Brian Lowry

Ed Bark

Salem is replete with scenes that make little sense. It’s mostly a jumble of decent enough special effects, less-than-decent acting, a script that also should be lashed with “10 hard ones” and lots of blood-curdling screaming.

Zack Handlen

Matt Roush

Welcome to Early American Horror Story, which could give you whiplash from all the clashing acting styles, from Seth Gabel's foaming-at-the-mouth over-emoting as zealot Cotton Mather to Shane West's monotonously mumbling and too-modern hero John Alden.

David Wiegand

The melodrama is thicker and more implausible than the tarlike gunk oozing out of that tree at the beginning of Sunday's premiere, but there are adequate performances to balance the painfully over-the-top dialogue, at least.